Kimberly Treacy

Ask an Omaha SEO Agency: Is My Website Credible?

As a leading Omaha SEO agency, we here at Big Red SEO get asked all kinds of questions in our initial audit consultations. Most often, a business will have us look at their existing website (which they had a low-quality website mill churn out) and ask us why they’re not seeing the rankings, visitors, and conversions they want. It’s not a problem with their overall business, as people love their products or services and they have great repeat business from those who’ve come to know them. They just can’t seem to get new customers in the door!

When something like this happens, our Omaha SEO agency looks at one thing first—their online credibility. If your website is sending the wrong credibility signals, you’re going to have a hard time getting new customers to come in and see what you have to offer! But unlike a physical storefront where it’s easy to tell what makes customers wary (barred windows, a ripped awning, even dirty walkways maybe), knowing what signals on your website send customers running is a little harder. But no worries, that’s what our Omaha SEO agency is here for! We’ll tell you some easy fixes to boost your website’s credibility and make sure you’re putting your best foot forward.

The Four Types of Credibility

According to BJ Fogg, a Stanford professor and leading researcher on website credibility, a website is seen as credible when it’s both trustworthy and knowledgeable in its industry. In establishing these traits on your own website, it’s important to understand all the different types of credibility there are. Fogg has identified 4 main types:

Presumed Credibility: This is when a business is seen to be credible based on its current position in the industry. Amazon, for instance, has great presumed credibility because absolutely everyone has heard of it.

Reputed Credibility: This is the credibility that’s built over time based on great customer reviews. In other words, this is what your customers have to say about your business that in turn gets other customers in the door.

Earned Credibility: When a visitor becomes a customer, what’s their experience like? Earned credibility is the credibility you receive each and every time you give an individual customer a good experience. Earned credibility also increases your reputed credibility!

Once you understand how every type of credibility influences how customers interact with your brand, you’re ready to look at your own website to see whether it’s adding to or detracting from your trustworthiness and perceived knowledge.

Our Omaha SEO Agency Says Web Design Matters

Let’s tackle surface credibility first, because surface credibility leads to earned, reputed, and eventually presumed credibility, too. When someone first visits your website, what’s their first impression? This is where it pays to be honest with yourself, because if you designed your own website and you’re not a professional web designer, chances are that your web design is hurting your credibility.

The fact is, customers judge the attractiveness of websites astoundingly fast and there’s a strong link between attractiveness and trustworthiness. This is why it’s better in the long run to let a professional web design and Omaha SEO agency like Big Red SEO handle the design work on your business website. Think about it as an investment in the long-term credibility of your current and future business endeavors!

Make Communication a Top Priority

Your website visitors should always have a means of contacting you at their fingertips. Nothing takes away from a business website’s credibility more than making a customer hunt down their contact information. If they can’t find your address, phone number, and a contact email address quickly and easily, they’ll wonder why that information isn’t more readily available. Either you forgot to include this information or you don’t want customers contacting you, and neither of these options enhances your credibility as a business.

Provide Testimonials and Customer Reviews

You can talk up your own product or service until you’re blue in the face, but what really matters to a visitor is what other customers think. That’s why our Omaha SEO agency thinks it’s always a good idea to include customer testimonials and reviews that rave about your company, your employees, your customer service, your return policies, you name it! The more information a visitor has from other customers about the great way you do business, the more likely they’ll trust you to treat them the same way.

Write a Blog to Promote Your Authority

According to our Omaha SEO agency, keeping up a company blog is one of the best ways to show visitors your industry knowledge. When you have a long-running and regularly updated blog that’s dedicated to answering questions about your services or products and helping customers understand what you do, how you do it, and how your company can help them, it shows that your company is up-to-date and concerned with helping your customers make informed decisions. That does wonders for your credibility!

Note: As an added bonus, consistently updated content acts as an indicator to search engines that your website is worth a higher ranking than those who don’t regularly post fresh content!

Contact Big Red SEO at (402) 522-6468 Today

As an Omaha SEO agency, we here at Big Red SEO know that it can be hard to look at your own business website objectively and figure out what features are affecting your online credibility. That’s why we offer website audits that can tell you exactly what’s working to draw more traffic and conversions to your website and what’s having a negative effect on your credibility. Give us a call today at (402) 522-6468 to get your free website audit started today! Big Red SEO takes your website out of hiding.

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